October is both Fair Trade Month and Non-GMO Month, and so now's a good time to tell you tea lovers: when you drink our tea, you're celebrating these causes with us, whether it's October or not!

We suspect you know all about Fair Trade, but just in case you don't, we'll tell you that it's all about paying people fairly for the work they do. And your favorite beverage is a great example of how many people work hard to bring it to you, and sometimes aren't paid very much at all. Fair Trade USA was set up to stop that from happening, and Two Leaves and a Bud happens to be a certified business with Fair Trade USA. We don't always use Fair Trade USA with some of our teas, though — for our Two Leaves and a Bud tea sachets and loose teas, we pay top dollar directly to tea gardens to bring you the best whole leaf tea we can find. While these teas aren't certified by a third party, we are trading fairly! We pay more for our tea, and that goes to back to the gardeners. Most of our teas from our range of paper tea bags — Paisley Label Tea — feature blends of teas from various gardens, so we buy Fair Trade Certified tea for those teas to ensure that all the growers receive a fair wage. Those teas are certified by Fair Trade USA.

As for our alliance with the Non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) Project, consider that since we place a priority on knowing that our teas are organic, so we know exactly what's in the tea before we sell it to you, of course we're not interested in choosing GMO ingredients! We share the Non-GMO Project's vision that everyone deserves an informed choice about whether or not to consume genetically modified organisms, so seeing their logo on our boxes should put your mind at ease.

So, sip some fairly traded, Non-GMO Verified tea with us all year long, tea lovers! For more information on these organizations, visit fairtradeusa.org and nongmomonth.org. Cheers!